butter it up
by duusu
Summary: Without thinking, Marinette said, "Chat, could you please hand me the bowl of icing?" Which she immediately regretted saying after remembering that she was not with Chat. Though, she did not know why Adrien happily obliged.


"N-No, Alya, that's not how you do it!" Marinette cried out when she saw her best friend using the piping bag in an improper way.

"Huh? But you said I should squeeze it in the middle?" Alya asked in confusion while holding the said piping bag that contained pastel-blue icing inside.

They were in the Dupain-Cheng bakery making some cookies for Nino's upcoming birthday this weekend. Well, the word 'trying' should be part of the sentence, since so far, they're in the middle of putting on some icing for Nino's birthday cookies. Normally, the process of icing would only last 30 minutes at the most if Marinette would do it alone, considering the amount of cookies they had to put some icing on, but in their current situation, they only iced 5 cookies successfully in a span of 20 minutes, and failed 6 cookies in the process.

This was the first time Alya has baked with Marinette – okay, maybe this is actually Alya's _first time_ to experience how to bake. Ironically speaking, her mother is a chef in a very well known hotel in Paris.

Leaving that aside, Marinette and Alya figured it that baking pastries for Nino's birthday would be really fun, yet here they are, not making so much progress.

Due to the pressure of making a lot of cookies in such a short amount of time, Marinette felt like as if it was the first time to be stressed in baking.

Since they wanted for Nino's upcoming birthday to be special, they wanted Nino's pastries to be made out of pure love from his friends.

"Hey, Marinette, how's this?" Adrien asked as he showed Marinette a cookie that was shaped into a letter 'N' that was colored with pastel yellow icing on top, accompanied by thin white lines that served as the border of the cookie.

Oh yeah, she forgot to mention that Adrien was there. Marinette was too preoccupied in her own thoughts that she forgot that Adrien was actually in the bakery.

How could she have forgotten?

Maybe she forgot Adrien's existence in the kitchen because he already knew how to use the piping bag to the point that Marinette could let him do it by himself, whereas Alya was the exact opposite; she was having a hard time handling how to use a piping bag that Marinette's whole attention was diverted to her.

She forgot that Adrien was actually here to spend time with her (and there's Alya too) to make some pastries for Nino's upcoming birthday. He actually liked the idea of creating some desserts for his best friend, so he encouraged Marinette to let him bake along with her and Alya. Of course, Marinette was a sucker for him and fully agreed to let him join without even thinking twice about it.

Right now, she's regretting nothing.

"Yes, Adrien, that cookie is as beautiful as y– I mean, really, really beautiful! Keep up the good work!" In a panicking manner, she raised up her thumb and grinned as if she wasn't about to embarrass herself in front of her crush.

Until now, that is. She regretted thinking that she was regretting nothing.

Adrien didn't seem to notice Marinette's slip up and sent her a warm smile. With that, he faced the table that was filled with cookies that needed to be iced.

With that, Marinette mentally sighed of relief and went back on spreading some icing on top of a cookie.

Alya was on Marinette's left while Adrien was on her right. The three of them were in surrounding the kitchen island in the middle of the kitchen. On top of the kitchen island were bowls, each filled with different colors of icings, parts of piping bags that were needed for their baking, and cookies with different kinds of shapes and letters that needed to be iced.

"Baking is actually fun, it's just that the icing part is really hard." Alya commented as she tried to gently squeeze the end of the piping bag she was holding. Not removing her attention from the cookie and the piping bag, white icing successfully came out on the tip.

Adrien chuckled from Marinette's right, "I agree. I miss whisking already." He smiled and laughed softly, making the two other girls on his side laugh as well.

Marinette smiled, her eyes still focused in front of what she's doing. "I miss cutting the dough. For me, it's the fun part in baking." She replied with a smile.

"Hey, you know what else is fun?" Alya grinned, but her two friends didn't see the evil glint from it. Without a warning or waiting for a reply, Alya dipped her fingers on a bowl full of pastel-pink icing and wiped a finger on Marinette's face and Adrien's face, causing Marinette to shriek from her place, but Adrien reacted in a different way.

"Two can play that game." He grinned similarly to Alya's and dipped his fingers into the bowl of blue icing and ran to Alya's place.

"No!" Alya shrieked and ran, but Adrien was just bluffing. He immediately turn to his side and wiped the icing on Marinette's nose.

Marinette shrieked for the second time from the cold contact of the icing on her face. She looked at the two of her friends – who were laughing at the colors on Marinette's face – and she squinted her eyes at them. "Payback time!" She yelled as she dip her fingers into the bowl with purple icing.

Seeing Marinette dip her fingers into the purple icing was already a sign for Adrien and Alya to run from her.

"Icing war!" Alya declared, gaining no words of protests from her friends as they were deeply invested to it already.

As if it was a real war, the three grabbed their own bowls of icing: Alya grabbed two bowls and a whisk as Marinette grabbed two bowls as well, but with piping bags at hand, whereas Adrien have three bowls with a large wooden spoon at hand.

"Atta–" Before Alya could've gotten the chance to yell a word, Marinette squirted a generous amount of icing from her piping bag on Alya's face. Immediately after that action, Marinette felt icing thrown at her hair, making her squeak. She turned around and saw Adrien with a grin on his face.

Where has Marinette seen that familiar grin on Adrien's face?

"Cheater!" Marinette heard Alya yell and immediately ducked her head when she sensed that Alya was about to throw ammos at her. Luckily for her, Adrien was the one who got hit by Alya's attack.

Adrien sucked a breath when icing spluttered on his forehead, eyeing at Alya who just stuck her tongue out while Marinette was already making her escape. Adrien scooped blue icing from his bowl and threw it at Alya. The throwing was a success, since he may or may not be using his Chat Noir skills in the middle of the war. After aiming at Alya, he now aimed at Marinette, who was far away from him and Alya.

Marinette probably felt Adrien's gaze on her direction as she looked at him with a smile on her face. In an instant, Adrien scooped on his other bowl and threw the content on Marinette's direction. Being the embodiment of bad luck itself, he missed his shot as Marinette easily dodged it and she grabbed her piping bag and squirted some icing on Adrien.

Who would've thought that Marinette could be slick sometimes?

So, in the kitchen that was once filled with pressure and stress in the atmosphere is now filled different colors of icing. The three of them were throwing different colors on each other. The icing war was long, but alas, every war has its end.

"What is going on in here?" A voice yelled from the door of the kitchen, making the three halt on their feet. Alya, Marinette, and Adrien directed their eyes at the source of the voice and their eyes quickly widen like saucer plates.

"Maman!" Marinette gasped out, not expecting for her parents' arrival in this kind of hour.

"Oh my dear." Marinette's father gasped as he scanned the kitchen. Saying that the kitchen is an absolute mess is an understatement. It looked like as if there was a party that was abandoned the moment the police came raiding in the party.

Maman sighed, though a smile wasn't leaving her face. "Oh, Marinette. I expect you to clean up after this, okay?" She softly said.

Adrien stepped in, "Don't worry, Mrs. Dupain-Cheng, we will make sure the kitchen was back to the way it was before we set foot in here." He reassured.

"Thank you." Sabine said, and with that, Marinette's parents were out of the kitchen.

Marinette sighed in relief and observed the damage that they've had caused in less than an hour. The kitchen utensils were scattered on the kitchen tops and on the floor, the bowls of icings were scattered on the floor, and clearly the whole area was draped with icing, including the three of them.

"Let's clean this up and take a shower later. Sounds like a plan?" Marinette asked the two of her friends, earning hums of approval to her plan.

The cleaning didn't take longer than Marinette was expecting. With the help of Alya and Adrien, they managed to clean the kitchen in about 30 minutes. Say, the kitchen is already clean, but the problem they're now currently facing is the icing.

"Now what?" Alya asked as she put the mop on the side of the kitchen, where the rest of their cleaning supplies were put.

"We need to make more icing." Marinette said, and glanced at the table where the cookies were supposed to be stacked. "And another batch of cookies, most probably."

Since the kitchen was really messy earlier and the three of them weren't sparing anything to use as their ammos for offense, the cookies got included and were used as one of their ammos. Thankfully enough, the cookies that already have icing were spared and survive from the war from earlier, as they were put in the cabinet for safety reasons.

"How 'bout this, I'll make the cookies while you and Adrien can make more icings, sounds good?" Alya chirped as she sit on the isle along with Marinette and Adrien, the three of them still look all messed up from the war. Yes, the kitchen was already clean, but the three of them were not. They couldn't find any time to wash themselves, since Alya and Adrien didn't bring any spare clothes because they weren't expecting for them to wage war against each other to the point where they'll need extra clean clothes.

"Sounds good to me." Adrien hopped off the counter, followed by Alya, and the two of them looked at Marinette, waiting for her respond.

Of course, Marinette thought of it as a good idea. Alya knew how to bake cookies today and was actually excellent to it, but her weak spot was getting the icing done. As for Adrien, well, Marinette thought that he had no troubles with either of the two choices, since he was a fast learner in the field of baking and making icing. Ah yes, that's probably under her long list of why she loves Adrien. He's such a perfect human being.

"Marinette?"

Yep, that beautiful voice. She could definitely get used to hearing that sound of music. She didn't know why she deserved to hear that voice call her name.

"Girl, you better stop spacing out."

Oh no, that wasn't the beautiful voice she wanted to hear.

"Oops, sorry Alya. Oh, and yeah, I'm in. I'll do the icing with Adrien while you do the baking." Marinette said in a hurry as she hopped out of the counter as well, already wanting to make some icing with Adrien.

Funny how the three of them could wage a war and happily agree on sharing the chores in a span of 30 minutes.

So they began working. Alya was already looking for the supplies for baking, while Marinette and Adrien began looking for ingredients for making some icing in the cupboards.

Marinette tilted her head up high and looked at the cupboard in front of her. She tiptoed and stretched her arms, trying to reach the handle of the cupboard. Grunting, she faced the music that she's already short, but how in God's name her maman could reach the cupboards if she's shorter compared to Marinette is beyond her.

"Everything's beyond me." She commented at her own thought.

If Chat was here, he would probably chuckle at her shortness and offer her his help. He would tease her about her height, even though she defended that she was taller than most girls, which she Chat would usually just laugh at.

"Need a hand?" Adrien disturbed her from her mental turmoil, making Marinette turn her head to his direction.

Well, Chat wasn't here, but Adrien sure was.

"Uh… yes please. Could you reach that cupboard and check if we still have piping bags – woah!" Before Marinette could've gotten a chance to finish her request, Adrien had grabbed her waist and lifted her up in the air without a warning for her to reach the cupboard.

"Check it." Adrien said as he held Marinette. Surprisingly enough, she was lighter than she may have looked. Funny how it reminds him of how Ladybug weighed similarly like Marinette.

"O-O-Okay." Marinette stuttered, but not from her fear of heights or being grabbed by the waist and lifted, but because of the idea of Adrien actually holding her waist. It's not like she experiences this in an everyday manner. Although, she didn't know why Adrien's grip was familiar, like, the way Chat would grip her waist whenever she was in need of reaching something with her hands, or holding her whenever she was on the verge of falling.

Leaving those thoughts aside, she opened the cupboard and found a stack of unused dishes that were only meant to be used whenever they have quite a number of guests in the shop. She looked at the topper portion and grinned when she finally found what she's been looking for. With a smile, she grabbed the piping bags and the tips needed for the icing.

"Got it." She said, and felt Adrien lower her until her feet reached the floor.

Marinette didn't know that Adrien was actually strong to the point that he was able to carry her in midair for a good minute. Despite his lack of muscles, he was stronger than a normal teen at their age.

Unbeknown to her, Marinette started to think of how funny it was when she'll think of Adrien as Chat. Surely, Chat looked like a person around her age, but as strong as someone who has been working out or doing a handful of exercises. Their hair looked like the same color, although a lot of Parisians have the same shade of color as theirs. Chat has this sense of humor her inner self was admiring, but of course, she wouldn't tell him that.

She wondered if Adrien has the same sense of humor like Chat.

They finally started making some icing while Alya was in the middle of putting the first new batch of cookies in the oven.

"You know, I had fun today." Adrien said as he stirred all the ingredients in a bowl using a spoon.

"I'm glad to hear that." Marinette smiled at him, internally giving herself a pat in the back for not stuttering like a complete idiot in front of him. "Are you done with it?" She asked as she was stopped stirring on her own bowl of liquid icing.

With all honesty, she had no idea why she wasn't stuttering like a complete maniac. Maybe it's because of her sudden wave of confident at the thought of Chat? She'll never know.

"Yep." Adrien said and placed the bowl on top of the isle beside Marinette.

Though, Marinette didn't notice the Adrien's bowl as she already stepped in front of the freezer. She put her bowl of liquid icing in the middle, but frowned when she remembered that she was supposed to put another one as well.

Without thinking, Marinette said, "Chat, could you please hand me the bowl of icing?" which she immediately regretted saying after remembering she was not with Chat.

Damn that little kitten for being stuck in her brain. Yes, she's blaming for Chat for her now embarrassed state.

Wait a minute, how come Adrien wasn't laughing at her? How come he wasn't correcting her in the first place?

Instead of meeting her expectations, went in front of her with the icing bowl and said, "Here you go."

Marinette looked at him as if he grew another head.

Adrien must've finally caught up and realized what he did when his eyes widen like saucer plates from responding.

"You…" Was the only thing Marinette managed to say after everything that was rushing in her brain.

Adrien grinned. "Well, it's no wonder you're as small as my lady."

Marinette groaned "Shut up, _chaton_."


End file.
